Slam Your Poetry by Merrill Miles;Nozica Narcisa;

Author:Merrill, Miles;Nozica, Narcisa; [Miles Merrill and Narcisa Nozica]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of New South Wales Press

At the gig

Okay – you’ve set up the chairs, the merch table looks gorgeous, audio gear all plugged in, sound check checked. You (or a team member) welcome people at the door. Take their cash. Stamp their wrist. Wait 5–10 minutes after the start time to allow for stragglers. Cover up the merch table. MC takes the stage and opens with an Acknowledgment of Country. Then it’s just … listen. That’s the key thing, of course. The pay-off. You dive into the boring side of fun just so you can get to this moment. I’ve organised, attended or performed in very honestly thousands of spoken word events. It’s listening to the poets that blows me away each time.

My partner and I were expecting our second daughter. The Australian Poetry Slam NSW final was in the first week of November, and the national final was the first week of December. My daughter was born on 20 November. Two weeks later, I found myself backstage at the Sydney Opera House, thinking: What am I doing here? I should be home with my family. It was the third poet to take the mic that got me. That poem snapped me back into the event and had me cheering inside. Every slam is different – different artists and forms of presenting; different passions; different levels of intricacy, insight and power. Because of this, I’ve never seen the same slam show twice.

Yes, you have tasks. If you’re the organiser you might also be the MC/host. The MC of an open mic is pretty cruisy. Call people up. Be entertaining. Keep people to time. Listen. Chill. Say goodnight.

At a slam, if you’re the MC, you are getting people to draw names from a hat, checking in with the timekeeper and scorekeeper. You’re picking judges, getting scores from them. You’re reading or reciting bios of features and throwing in a few poems of your own. The MC is the glue keeping the night going. It’s their upbeat vibe; it’s their ability to get the crowd excited and perform some of their own crowd-pleasing poems. They have to be humorous, knowledgeable and organised, with all the details of the event either memorised or in very clear notes.

If you’re organising, you’ll need to have a couple of people on the merchandise table and ticketing. This will require a float – an amount of money in small bills and coins to make change. You will ideally have a scorekeeper and timekeeper. You should have all of your sign-up sheets and documents printed and stuck on clipboards or in a folder, or have some electronic check-ins and sign-ups. The people who attend are going to be your mailing list. Also consider feedback forms or surveys. This will be helpful if this little gig o’ yours starts to grow and you’re thinking grants and funding. What’s your impact?

You can do the event solo. Set up merch and sign-ups before the show; cover it during the show, uncover at intermission. Get audience or venue volunteers to do scoring/timing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.